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Interrupted sleep of my child

Hi, everyone

I am here again to discuss about my one year old baby who does not seem to be at peace for the last two nights. I don't know why but she wakes up suddenly three-four times at night and starts crying. She calms down after some time when me or my husband takes her in lap. What can be the reason for this? Is she afraid of something or is she going through a bad dream phase? Does your child face the same problem? I am very restless because she keeps me busy and awake the whole night and I can't concentrate in my work during the morning. She was having a sound sleep for all these months. I really don't know how to tackle this problem. Any suggestions?

It would be helpful if I could ask you a few more questions to try and get to the bottom of the problem. How long has your daughter been waking up crying for? When you say she wakes three/ four times crying at night - what is the time gap between these periods of waking? Has anything changed at all in her routine or bedtime since the crying started? What was her sleep like before these interrupted nights began?

I have a few thoughts on this. Have you heard of 'night terrors'? This is where a child has a period of crying inconsolably in the night. What is unusual about a night terror (and differentiates it from a 'normal' occurrence of the child waking up and perhaps crying out to a parent) is that the child will not be easily consoled and sometimes will not even seem to recognise their parents or surroundings. The child is actually not fully awake when a night terror is occurring (even though their eyes may be open). There is a previous thread about night terrors here. My eldest son had just turned one when he experienced night terrors. They went away after a few nights and we believed the cause to be that he was over-tired.

Where does your daughter sleep? Does she have a consistent bed-time routine?

A bed-time routine is really key in helping your baby to have a good night's sleep. Babies do sleep differently from adults and it is usual for them to wake several times in the night. It is when a baby learns to self-sooth and comfort themself that they will stop waking a parent in the night and so be perceived to 'sleep through the night'. I would highly recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and there is an excellent article on reading your babies sleepy signals here.

Do you breastfeed your daughter in the night? I breastfed my eldest in the night until he was around 18 months old. This helped me to keep up a good milk supply and gave him the wonderful benefits of breastmilk for an extended time.

Sometimes a child will wake in the night if they are hungry or if they are teething or unwell. This would lead to a temporary sleep disruption. A longer term disrupted sleep pattern is more likely to be due to a change needed in their routine. I have also found a lot of truth in the statement 'sleep breeds sleep': a baby that naps well in the day is more likely to sleep better at night. How long does your daughter nap for in the day?

I hope we can all work together to help your daughter get a good night's sleep!

Thanks for the details. My child was having this sudden sleep interruption since 20th of July after which I posted this problem. However, I tried massaging her body before night and she slept calmly. I think that tiredness was one of the reasons for this which you have also mentioned in your response. She has just started walking a month back and it is a new experience for her. She just want to keep walking and reach out every room, garden and backyard. May be this makes her very tired and I had not been able to understand that her body need to be relaxed before going to bed. This is working for me. I breastfeed her every night after you encouraged me to continue breastfeeding in the other thread. Now she wakes two- three times but does not cry much. No more sudden crying and she does not seem to be frightened or not ready to be calm as she was doing.

I am so pleased to hear that your daughter's sleep seems to have settled down.

It is interesting that you write that she has recently learnt to walk. Research shows that the times of greatest development in babies (including learning to sit unaided and walk alone) are also the times when they have a more interrupted sleep routine. This is believed to be because they need more breastmilk during this time in order to boost the brain in making these developmental leaps.

That's fantastic that you are breastfeeding your daughter every night - providing your daughter with the best source of nourishment and nutrients as her body and mind develop day by day.

I agree with you that it is good for your daughter to have some time of getting ready for bed each night. In the hour leading up to bed-time you could read her stories, sing her songs or talk about what you have done that day. Baby massage is a perfect way to help her relax before bed.